Feb 02
100 Years of Beauty in 1 Minute: Israel/Palestine
Posted in: Uncategorized100 Years of Beauty: Israel/Palestine (Stav and Zenah)..(Read…)
Feb 02
Ozzy Man Commentates on Cows Flipping Out Over Turtle
Posted in: Uncategorized“Me commentary on cows investigating a strange paddock invasion. “..(Read…)
Feb 02
Jon Stewart Reads Trump's Next Batch Of Executive Orders
Posted in: UncategorizedFriend of the show Jon Stewart stops by to give Stephen a sneak peek at some executive orders he borrowed off the President’s desk…(Read…)
Feb 02
How the German Language Uses Compound Words to Efficiently Describe Emotional States
Posted in: UncategorizedGerman is a wonderfully inventive and bold language, full of gloriously long compound words for emotions and ideas that most languages struggle to allow us to express…(Read…)
Feb 02
Extremely Satisfying Video Tutorials on How to Create Realistic Models and Scenery
Posted in: UncategorizedBuilding The Ultimate Model – Realistic Scenery..(Read…)
Feb 02
Human Zoetrope (Tattoo Animation)
Posted in: UncategorizedA 24 frame animated tattoo of The Timecrow…(Read…)
Feb 02
Brazil's dictatorship caused lasting damage to architecture education, says Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Posted in: UncategorizedDestroying architecture education was the “greatest evil” performed by Brazil’s military dictatorship, according to Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who has just been awarded the Royal Gold Medal.
Mendes da Rocha, 88, told Dezeen that Brazil’s military coup in 1964 and the resulting 20-year dictatorship not only had a significant impact on his early career, it caused lasting damage on the country’s architecture.
He described the regime’s restriction on education as it’s “greatest evil” and said that Brazilian architecture is still struggling to undo its effects.
“The military coup was a very right-wing dictatorship and it was a very violent one as well,” said Mendes da Rocha, during an exclusive interview.
“I could say that it has destroyed education and universities in Brazil before they did anything. And up to today we’re still suffering from the consequences of those actions, and we’re working very hard to catch up and recover what we had,” he continued.
“This would be the greatest evil performed by the military coup, more over than any individual issues.”
Mendes da Rocha set up his São Paulo-based practice in 1955 and completed the now-iconic Athletic Club of São Paulo just two years later.
But, following the coup, he was banned from teaching and practicing in his own right, as were other left-leaning colleagues.
He said that many younger architects are unaware of the consequences of the regime, and that political unrest and war is the world’s greatest threat to education.
“They’re not aware of what has been done, I think this is the greatest issue,” said Mendes da Rocha. “To rebuild all this is not just a Brazilian issue, I would say that is a global issue, because in some ways Brazil’s just a small example of what has happened world-wide in the 20th century with wars.”
“It [war] affects the development of knowledge and education, but on the other hand we can say it’s a common human condition we’re experiencing.”
He said that architecture schools needs to encompass a much greater breadth of knowledge, rather than just built form.
“Architecture deals with all forms of human knowledge – anthropology, criticism, philosophy, linguistics, techniques,” he said. “I have the impression that at the heart of a university, the school of architecture can be the central nucleus of all knowledge.”
“Maybe the most striking peculiarity of architecture is that] when we build something we are building the city. Spatial transformation happens with this act of building.”
Paulo Mendes da Rocha is prolific in his native Brazil – with projects including the Estádio Serra Dourada in Goiás (1975), the Forma Furniture showroom in São Paulo (1987) and the Saint Peter Chapel in São Paulo (1987) among his most prestigious. But he has also completed just a handful of buildings overseas.
Among them is the 1970 Osaka Expo pavilion and the recently completed National Coach Museum in Lisbon – a project he says holds special significance for him.
Situated to the rear of Amanda Levete’s MAAT museum in the city’s historic Belém area, the stretch of coastline it is situated on is said to be where the first ships set sail to Brazil.
“Sailing ships left from there and they discovered Brazil. So it’s a great emotion, its incomparable,” he said.
“The emotion, the gratitude, the beautiful, the peculiar beauty of each project is something incomparable. They are all very grandiose emotions.”
Paulo Mendes da Rocha was awarded the Royal Gold Medal by RIBA president Jane Duncan in a ceremony this evening.
The award recognises the architect’s lifetime achievements, and adds to his growing cache of the world’s most prestigious architecture accolades. Among them are the Mies van der Rohe Prize, which he was presented with in 2000, the Pritzker Prize in 2006, and in 2016 the Venice Biennale Golden Lion and the Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award.
Duncan, who describes Mendes da Rocha as a “living legend”, said: “Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s work is highly unusual in comparison to the majority of the world’s most celebrated architects.”
“He is an architect with an incredible international reputation, yet almost all his masterpieces are built exclusively in his home country,” she added. “Revolutionary and transformative, Mendes da Rocha’s work typifies the architecture of 1950s Brazil – raw, and beautifully crafted concrete.”
The bold forms and chunky coarse-grained concrete walls that are characteristic of his work have often drawn parallels with British Brutalism.
On receiving the award Paulo Mendes da Rocha said: “I didn’t aim for the award – but I see it as a beginning of a reflection to which I have contributed to. It’s an eternal reflection about what to do with nature in order to make the planet habitable.”
Last year’s Gold Medallist was the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who received the prize just one month before her death. Hadid became the first ever female architect to win the award in her own right in the Gold Medal’s 180-year history.
Past recipients include fellow Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright.
The post Brazil’s dictatorship caused lasting damage to architecture education, says Paulo Mendes da Rocha appeared first on Dezeen.
Feb 02
Mélissa Ohnona preserves nicks and scratches during revamp of century-old Montreal home
Posted in: UncategorizedCanadian designer Mélissa Ohnona has fully overhauled her own house, preserving imperfections to maintain charm and keep the interior from “feeling intimidating”.
Located in the Montreal suburb of Laval, the Lévesque Project entailed a full interior renovation of a historic dwelling that is owned and occupied by the designer and her family.
To create a “welcoming and functional family home”, the designer sought to maximise the space, along with increasing natural light and outward views. The home encompasses 1,500 square feet (139 square metres).
“The space had been renovated in the 1990s, leaving it oddly divided and devoid of any original charm,” said Mélissa Ohnona, who runs an interior design studio in Quebec.
“Therefore, it was decided we would start from scratch and completely rethink the layout.”
The scheme entailed relocating the kitchen, living room and stairs, along with moving a bathroom and powder room. An extension was added to the second floor, which made way for extra bedrooms to accommodate the couple’s three daughters.
Due to a limited budget, the couple did much of the work themselves. The designer’s husband, Hubert – a self-taught handyman – built the stairs, painted the rooms, and installed the floors, mouldings, wall panels and doors.
Nicks and scratches were preserved, as the designer sees them “as traces of the actual living that takes place”.
“We did not try to hide the imperfections because we see them as a welcoming factor, keeping the house from feeling intimidating,” the designer said.
For the ground floor, the designer aimed to strike a balance between openness and defined spaces.
The entry sequence begins with a black volume concealing a powder room and laundry, intended to maintain “a bit of mystery and insure the house does not reveal itself completely at first glance”.
Visitors then pass into the living and dining areas, which look out toward a tree-filled backyard. The living room formerly was located in the front of the home.
The kitchen, while tucked into a nook, is open to the living area. The enlarged dining room now holds a table that seats 14 people – a key concern for the designer, who wanted a space that could host large gatherings.
Because of a sloped site, the ground floor rises up as one moves toward the back of the home. “The ground floor is on street level at the front of the building, but one floor up at the rear,” Ohnona said. “Therefore, when looking out from the wide openings at the back, you are up in the trees.”
On the second storey, the team installed a central rift that divides the floor in half.
Two small “bridges” traverse the gap and enable access from the hallway to the bedrooms. “This creates interesting views onto the living area downstairs,” the designer said.
A staircase was moved to the centre of the home and features knotted pine walls and glass railings.
A fairly restrained colour palette was employed in the home, with most rooms dominated by white, black and pale-coloured wood. “The black elements contrast beautifully with the wood, but are not overpowering, as the white walls let the light bounce and flood the house,” the designer said.
Vibrant art and patterned rugs were incorporated into several rooms.
The designer focused on creating a pleasing mix of textures. Finishes and accents include slate tile, leather pulls, glass railings and ultra-matte kitchen cabinetry.
Wide planks of oiled white pine were used for flooring.
“The pine is a material that could have been used a hundred years ago, and is therefore coherent with the age of the house,” said Ohnona. “It is a soft wood, which means it will develop an interesting patina over the years.”
Other projects in Montreal include the transformation of a 1930s brick building into a contemporary home by Naturehumaine and the revamp of a 125-year-old urban dwelling by Architecture Open Form, which involved creating a black wooden facade.
The post Mélissa Ohnona preserves nicks and scratches during revamp of century-old Montreal home appeared first on Dezeen.
Feb 02
Herzog & de Meuron's Jenga-like 56 Leonard skyscraper photographed by Hufton + Crow
Posted in: UncategorizedThe stacked-blocked form of Herzog & de Meuron‘s residential tower in Tribeca, New York, is shown in these images by photographers Hufton + Crow.
The Swiss architecture firm’s 60-storey skyscraper at 56 Leonard Street towers over the comparatively low-rise neighbourhood.
Hufton + Crow‘s photos present the building as complete from the outside, after Instagram users showed it with external elevator scaffolding in June 2016.
The tower comprises a series of cuboid volumes that become increasingly offset from one another towards the top, drawing comparisons with the wooden blocks used in a game of Jenga.
Floor-to-ceiling glass walls are sandwiched between concrete floor slabs, which in some places extend out to form balconies.
The building houses 145 residences, as well as amenities including an indoor/outdoor theatre, a 75-foot (23-metre) swimming pool, a fitness suite and a conference centre.
The tower is topped with 10 penthouses, each with a different layout and featuring up to 200 feet (61 metres) of continuous glazing. At ground level, one corner is taken up by bulbous mirrored sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor.
Construction began back in 2008 and the building finally topped out in 2015, however its official completion is yet to have been announced.
Herzog & de Meuron recently finished a couple of eagerly anticipated projects – the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie concert hall and the Tate Modern Switch House in London.
Last month the firm secured permission to build a new home for Chelsea Football Club, while in November 2016 it won a competition to extend Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
British duo Hufton + Crow also recently photographed BIG’s VIA 57 West skyscraper in Manhattan, capturing the building’s distinctive silhouette from across the Hudson at sunrise, as well as Santiago Calatrava’s vast ribbed Oculus that soars over the city’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub.
The post Herzog & de Meuron’s Jenga-like 56 Leonard skyscraper photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.
Feb 02
Huge circular hole pierces concrete house in Crete by Tense Architecture Network
Posted in: UncategorizedAthens-based Tense Architecture Network has completed a curvy concrete house on the Greek island of Crete, featuring a massive circular puncture that provides it occupants with a shaded roof terrace.
Designed for a young couple and their two young children, the residence is located in the Mediterranean city of Heraklion. It sit on an elevated, corner site, exposed to the southern sun on the street-facing side.
Tense Architecture Network shaped the curved fair-faced concrete volume that tops the four-storey residence in response to the sun’s path from east to west.
The aim was to offer shelter for both the house’s living spaces and the garden during the strong sunlight hours. The roof structure cantilevers over the smaller body of the house on one side, while the other side rests on a monolithic wall.
The design is also intended to offer privacy to the master bedroom and pair of outdoor terraces that occupy the two ends of the upper level. From one of these spaces, the circular opening creates a framed view of the city skyline.
“From the outset, the sculptural gesture arises from this sunny condition: the building is bent by the sun,” said the architects.
“The elevated concrete facade is without openings, except from an excision at the upper corner which reveals an outdoor space open to western views of the city.”
The other corner is occupied by an outdoor bathing pool. It features three more openings: a roof cutout, a narrow slit in the corner and a long vertical opening on the eastern facade.
One of the concrete columns that supports the roof also features in this area. A glass wall with thin black frames offers views of the pool from inside the house.
The facade also curves upwards on the underside to allow light to enter the first-floor living and dining room through an angled glass wall. Inside, a concrete staircase follows the rounded top of the glass pane.
A kitchen with monochromatic finishes is set behind this area in the triangular corner on the western side.
Three more other bedrooms occupy the olive-green base, which will eventually be hidden by climbing plants. Two of the bedrooms feature glazed doors that open to the private garden.
An underground study area, as well as the staircase leading to it, are dark green – a natural continuation of the exterior garden.
Photography is by Petros Perakis.
Project credits:
Project team: Tilemachos Andrianopoulos and Kostas Mavros
Collaborating architects: Thanos Bampanelos, Grigoris Stavridakis
Structural design: Athanasios Kontizas
Building technology: Arvanitis Spiros
The post Huge circular hole pierces concrete house in Crete by Tense Architecture Network appeared first on Dezeen.
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